It's surprising that Hollywood has taken this long to bring a cappella mania to the big screen -- especially with the success of NBC's reality competition The Sing-Off -- but based on its first trailer, Pitch Perfect looks to have been well worth the wait.

The inspiration here is that the movie brings a female-centric, lightly raunchy spin to the material that owes more than a little DNA to Bridesmaids. Not surprising, then, to see scene-stealing Aussie comic Rebel Wilson, who played Kristen Wiig's roommate in the latter, featured heavily here as "Fat Amy," the group's balls-to-the-wall comic relief.

Reluctant at first, Beca gives The Bellas a much-needed injection of vitality, and it's not long before the group is facing down their all-male rivals in an empty swimming pool for an 8 Mile-style "riff-off" performance of Blackstreet's "No Diggity."

There's a risk here that audiences could be burned out on stories revolving around campus-set performance competitions -- dozens of "regionals" episodes of Glee will do that -- but the material here seems original enough, and more importantly funny enough, to stand on its own. If anything, Pitch Perfect looks to be less of a big-screen Glee than it does a younger, groovier Bridesmaids.

And while Kendrick, at 26, is admittedly a little old to be playing a college freshman, the always appealing actress may have found her best starring vehicle since 2009's Up in the Air.